This book was amazing. It had a good

plot and a lot of action. The book also

gave a good amount of back story for the

reader to understand, but not too much

to where it became unnecessary. I would

love to see this become a film. This is

something I would recommend.

~ Jonah Routin

TESTED

by Zach Jordan

Designed to Be Worthy 2018

.

Published by: Designed to Be Worthy

102 W.McElhaney Road

Taylors, SC 29687

Copyright 2018 Designed to Be Worthy.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

First printing March, 2018

Dedicated to

I dedicate this book to my camera.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge

Wesley Cannon and John Routin. Wesley

modeled for the cover of my book and

Jonah Routin helped me think of ideas

when I came to a writer’s block.

Thanks, guys!

Table of Contents

1. Too Normal

2. Sick

3. Diagnosed

4. Help

5. Subject #4

6. Fight

7. Deal

8. Normal

6

7

Chapter 1 Too Normal

❧

It was just another day. John walked through the

aged double doors. Fellow students swarmed the hallways,

rushing to their classes. As John walked over the old

wooden floor and along the white brick walls people were

constantly greeted him. Everyone seemed to know him. A

group of football players emerged from the class on the left

side of the hall. When they saw John they happily greeted

him and continued to their classes.

John wasn’t well known at his school because he

held a position on one of the sport teams or because he

was a jokester, though he was athletic and humorous. He

was popular because of his photography. John was the

best. He won competitions all over the country. He

obtained the position of the school photographer. He took

pictures for soccer, football, and volleyball. along with

portraits. If anyone at the school knew about cameras, it

was him. He was pretty much a sixteen-year-old Brandon

Woelfel. Still, John felt like he continued to waste his life.

He was meant for more.

8

He finally reached the doorway to his class to turn

in the due paper and plopped down in his chair. The

teacher, Mr. Malcolm, welcomed everyone in. Two minutes

into the lecture, John was already zoned out. In his

imagination he dreamt about super heroes. His parents

figured that he’d have grown out of the “superhero stage”

when he first began his teen years. Here he was at

sixteen; John had never swayed in his desire to read and

watch the make-believe stories. The thought of being able

to help people wherever they were played in his mind on

repeat, all day, every day. He was well aware that reading

comics was not considered “cool” in most people’s eyes. In

middle school, he attempted to tell some of his wanna-be-

friends about The Flash but he was instantly shut down.

Since then, he learned to keep those “unpopular” topics

out of conversations. He yearned for lightning to strike

down and hit him, just like it had done to the The Flash. Of

course, he was aware that it would probably result in death

or at least injury.

Abruptly, the bell rang. School was finished.

Pleasantly surprised, he got up from his desk, shoved the

books he had never even glanced at into his bag, and

walked out. Today was a Friday, meaning he had a

photoshoot in the afternoon, but later that night The Flash

would air. He briskly walked to his flashy and loud Dodge

Dart, rolled down the windows, and rolled out of the

parking lot. The photoshoot was nothing special. He went

to his “makeshift” studio inside his medium-sized, modern

9

apartment. His studio wasn’t anything to brag about. It was

only a few studio lights, a white backdrop, and a wood

backdrop. His parents had originally planned for this room

to be an exercise room but with a lot of convincing and

pleading it was his studio.

He took pictures for roughly a half hour. Betty, a

cheerleader for the school, made the photography easy.

No Photoshop® was needed. After the shoot he ran inside

just in time to watch his show. He practically ran into his

clean, navy blue bedroom, plopped down on his bed,

turned on the TV, and began to watch. Something was

wrong. He switched from channel to channel. The Flash

wasn’t playing on the normal station or anywhere!

Suddenly, he realized they were taking a week break! The

only thing airing was some news report about a major car

chase and wreck down in Greenville, SC. The story of the

still missing drivers peaked his interest but soon it was off.

Disappointed, John stood up and walked to his cluttered

desk. He reached for his camera bag, grabbed his SD

card, plugged it in, and disappointedly began to tweak the

colors in the photos he had taken of Betty earlier.

After a few hours of working and watching

YouTube, roughly at 11 o'clock, green-blue eyed John slid

into his bed. He removed a comic from his bin directly

beside his bed and began to read. He began to read

volume 4 of The Flash. He pondered there wishing he

could have Barry’s speed. Though being rather popular,

still, he felt empty. He felt like his life lacked something.

10

John was a strong believer yet he still felt hollow. He felt as

if he was meant for more than just photography and the

normal activities a student would do. He rested his head on

the pillow and dozed off.

Chapter 2 Sick ❧

The sun was beaming through the window. The

small alarm clock beside his bed flashed, “7:24”. The

yellow warm sunlight painted the walls. Suddenly his alarm

began to obnoxiously ring. John practically jumped out of

his bed. He both loved but hated hearing his alarm clock, it

met he was starting a new day, but unfortunately in order

to do that he had to wake up. Like all teenagers, being

woken up was definitely one of the things he hated the

most. The tall boy scanned his room for clothes he hadn’t

worn too recently. He grabbed a shirt and jeans off of his

chair, smelled them both and decided they were probably

clean.

He ran into the bathroom, splattered water all over

his messy hair. Today his hair stuck up like a mad scientist

from a cartoon. After trying to fix it with all sorts of combs

11

and gels, he gave up and ran back into his room to grab a

cap. The student grabbed an apple, his camera, laptop,

and book bag. Just like that he left.

Since it was Saturday, he planned to walk to to the

center of downtown Charlotte. It was about a mile long

walk, there and back. While walking out the door of the

clean apartment, into the hallway, he called up Joey and

arranged plans to meet later that morning to hang out.

Joey had been John’s friend for as long as they could

remember. They went to the same school together for

about five years but unfortunately Joey had to transfer to

the other side of Charlotte due to his family moving to the

opposite side of town. At first, both friends were incredibly

upset but since then, they learned going to the same

school didn’t make them friends.

Before John met his close friend, he wandered

aimlessly down the busy, rustic streets. He drifted into his

favorite coffee shop, to sit and edit a handful of pictures he

had taken over the past few days. He absolutely hated

coffee, but for whatever reason he loved coffee shops. The

smell of coffee in the air and the rustic art on the walls,

there was just something that he loved about the feel and

aesthetic of the local shops.

After editing the photos, the clock struck noon. Just

as Joey arrived John suddenly felt weak. Joey walked into

the small shop to finally meet his best friend only to see

him sitting there paler than he had ever seen anyone look

before.

12

He rushed to John and confusedly asked, “John! Is

everything all right?”

John didn’t even hear Joey speak, he was focusing

on just trying to stand up.

Joey asked louder, “Is everything all right, man?”

John finally realized Joey’s question and gave up

trying to stand.

He worriedly answered, “Wait— what? Oh! I don’t

know man, I feel normal- I don’t feel like I’m sick I just can’t

stand up!”

Joey helped pull him out of the chair and carefully

walked him to Joey’s car.

“I’m gonna drive you home so you can get some

rest. We’ll hangout another day. Ok?” Joey asked.

He was disappointed but concerned. John didn’t

even hear him.

13

Chapter 3 Diagnosed

❧

John laid motionless. The blankets on his bed were

scattered all over the ground. He was covered in sweat

from head to toe. Suddenly, his eyes opened. John felt

awful. It took everything in him to sit up in his bed. Just

when he felt as if he could actually get up he went limp and

fell back.

Next he found himself rushing through the halls of a

hospital. Half awake, John looked around feeling sicker

than he had ever felt before. He saw a handful of highly

skilled medical personnel running beside the cart he laid

on. His worried mother was amongst the professional

personnel. Knowing his mother was present, he began to

close his eyes and went unconscious once again.

He woke up alone in a plain eerie-feeling hospital

room. John felt like the room was too nice to be a hospital

room yet it had all the hospital equipment. The first thing

he noticed was that he was no longer wearing his

pajamas. He was now dressed in some baggy hospital

garb. Disgusted he wondered who changed him. He easily

sat up. For whatever reason, he felt stronger than ever

14

before. He felt as if he could feel what was going on in the

room. Suddenly he looked up towards the door. A full

second later a doctor walked. How did I know he was

going to walk in? He was silent. John and the doctor made

eye contact and just stared for a second.

The slightly nervous doctor broke the silence,

“Hello-- I’m Wilson.”

Another awkward silence passed.

John interrupted the silence by blatantly saying,

“Hey.”

Wilson walked toward the whiteboard and began

writing some notes about what medicine to take, when to

go to bed, and other advice doctors give.

When Wilson began to stop writing John interrupted

saying, “Why am I here? What happened?”

Wilson walked up to the bottom of the bed.

“You have a very rare condition.” Wilson said,

“There’s not a name for it... yet. There’s also no cure as of

yet. Hopefully all of this will change when the doctors in the

lab get your blood results. Until--”

John worriedly interrupted, “Am I going to be ok? I

don’t feel sick!”

Wilson smiled, “You’ll be out of here in no time.

You’ll have to you come to a special facility every other day

for a while once you leave this place.”

John said, “So I’m ok?”

Wilson patted John on the shoulder and while

walking to the door said, “Yeah you’ll be fine kid.”

15

He exited the room. Sweat was forming on Wilson’s

forehead. Conflicted, he walked through the hall in which

he came.

John hated hospitals. He hated nothing more. Yet

here he was, forced to endure it. He switched from channel

to channel on the TV. No good shows were airing. Every

minute felt like an eternity. The door once again opened. It

was his mom. She practically ran to the bed where he sat

and worriedly hugged him.

She frantically asked, “Are feeling better? The

people at the desk said that you were doing fine.”

John was upset and though he would never admit

it, he was scared.

He answered his mom saying, “Yeah, Mom. Of

course, I’m fine; I’ve never felt better.”

His mom’s emotions were instantly relieved. She

glanced down at her watch and realized she was already

late for work.

“I gotta get to work. If you start feeling sick again

just call me and I’ll be here.” she worriedly said.

She then set the bag of John’s essential belongings

on the chair: his camera, laptop, phone, and a few comic

books. She walked to the door, said, “I love you.” and was

gone.

16

Chapter 4 Help

❧

The next day John was finally able to check out of

the boring and “too-perfect” hospital. They claimed to have

no clue of what caused him to become sick but they

prescribed two different types of medicine, Selenism and

Henves. Just like that he was gone. Unfortunately for John,

his hospital days were nowhere near over. Tuesday he

had to go to a special research center to get tested again.

John didn’t see the point in going if he was already feeling

better, but he listened.

John spent most of the morning at his house just

going over all that had happened. Ever since his injury he

felt like he could feel more. As if he could see what was

about to happen just before it did. He also realized his

reflexes seemed to be much faster than they were. He

dropped his brand new iPhone 7+ but before it could even

come near touching the ground and being shattered into

pieces he caught it without even realizing what happened.

He felt as if he was made “stronger” from this sickness.

Tuesday came in no time. The only bright side was

that he could get out of school during the testing times. He

17

arrived intentionally late to his first test. He dreaded being

a human test subject but there wasn’t anything he could

do. His mom wanted to get to the bottom of what caused

his short sickness. He walked through the building’s sliding

doors. Every doctor in the room seemed as if they were

focusing on John without trying to look suspicious. John

picked up on their eyeballing.

After checking into the lobby, Wilson, the doctor he

met the other day, walked him into his room and got him

comfortable. In the small amount of time John knew

Wilson, he had seemed very cautious. He acted as if he

was constantly conflicted about hiding something. It was

like he had someone planning what he had to say. He

seemed as if he was nervously reading a script. John just

figured that Wilson was extremely self-conscious and

afraid to be himself but unfortunately for John, he would

later be proved wrong.

John laid in the cold, large, and uncomfortable bed.

At this point Wilson had already left. A nurse walked into

the silent, eerily lit room. She had him breathe in some

laughing gas. His eyes began to slowly close. He put all his

energy into keeping them open, contrary to what the nurse

said. Eventually, he couldn’t fight it anymore. His eyes

slammed shut.

The room felt empty. John was the only living thing

in the room, although he looked as if he was not alive. He

slowly regained his consciousness. John rubbed his blurry

18

eyes revealing a new doctor monitoring what was

happening.

John mumbled, “I feel awful. Is everything going

ok?”

The doctor turned and faced John. The name tag

pinned to the doctor’s chest revealed the person’s name

was “Dr. Junker”.

Dr. Junker mischievously answered John,

“Everything is going just as we planned.”

Chills rushed through John’s weakened body. John

tried his best to pretend he wasn’t thoroughly freaked out.

John laid there trying to make sense of what was going on,

while the creepy doctor worked. Suddenly, John realized

the real reason he was in the facility. He was a human test

subject.

Outside of the research facility John’s mom was

worriedly waiting. The tests were only supposed to take a

few hours. It had been 24. The doctors lied to John’s

mother. They had told her John’s sickness flared up once

again during one of the tests causing him to pass out.

They deceptively relayed that his fate was uncertain. They

also told her no one was permitted into his room because it

had to remain a sterile environment.

The facility was clearly not what it appeared to be.

John was trapped and no one knew. He needed help.

19

Chapter 5 Subject #4

❧

A man, armored in goggles, a lab coat, and white

scrubs walked into the room, wheeling a white cart with

glass bottles filled with colored liquids. He lean down and

quietly injected John with a syringe. He began to jot down

notes on a notepad, “Subject #4 still appears to not be

reacting to the compound.” John’s eyes began to sleepily

open. The man in the lab coat stepped back and

confusedly whispered,

“The medicine wasn’t supposed to wear off for

another 3 hours?”

The man behind the goggles ran to the front of the

bed frantically checking the tubes, making sure they were

all attached. John’s blurry eyes blinked revealing a dark

figure in the corner. The figure had its dark eyes set on the

doctor. The figure stepped forward into the light. It was

Wilson. Wilson snuck behind the scientist and hit him in the

back of the head with a microscope causing him to fall over

unconscious.

The hero whispered, “I’m here to rescue you!”

John sleepily mumbled his concern: “Wilson?

What’s happening?”

20

Wilson intensely whispered, “I don’t have time to

explain. Long story short you have an unknown organism

inside you that this agency has been tracking for the past

two months. When your doctor realized this he didn’t tell

you, but instead he told the government. We-”

John interrupted, “Why would the government

care?”

Wilson continued, “I was just getting to that. Having

this organism is rare, virtually impossible. The government

doesn’t know where it came from, that’s why you’re here.

This organism can increase reflexes, make a

inexperienced soldier a pro. They want to find a way to

recreate it and give it to the military program.”

By now the medicine had completely wore off. John

was awake.

He sat up and intensely but thankfully asked, “Why

are you helping me?”

“So far there have been three others like you found:

Jenn, Jonah, and Nips. This agency’s experiments killed

them all…My experiments killed them all.”

John realized the seriousness the situation he was

now stuck in.

“I just followed orders. I wanted to help them but I

was too afraid.”

Tears began to roll down Wilson’s thin face.

John began pulling off the lab equipment attached

to his arms.

21

He looked up at Wilson and spoke, “Wilson, I don’t

know much about you, but you’re here now. You’re doing

the right thing now. That has to count for something.”

With that Wilson nodded and wiped the tears from

his face. John quickly changed out of the comfortable but

annoying scrubs and into more casual clothes. Wilson

slowly opened the door. Suddenly red alarm lights began

flashing.

A robotic voice played over the intercoms. “Subject

#4 door has been opened unauthorized.” The voice kept

repeating. Wilson and John exchanged worried glances

and took off down the now flashing red illuminated hall

toward the exit. John suddenly felt a weird urge to stop

dead in his tracks. Trusting his new instincts he

desperately motioned for Wilson to stop as well. Just as he

did this a agent busted out from inside a room no more

than five feet in front of them. Wilson looked at John in

amazement. If they had continued running, he would’ve

had the jump on them.

Everything turned to slow motion. The thug threw a

left hook towards John’s face. With ease John took a step

back to dodge the first attack. Unfortunately for the agent

his bulky fist slipped past John’s nose and smashed into

the concrete wall. The agent yelled in agony grabbing his

damaged arm. He had easily broken it.

John and Wilson exchanged surprised glances and

stepped around the guard. They continued sprinting down

the dark hallway. They finally reached the door that had

22

the exit sign above it. They burst into the dark, drenched,

and empty roof of the parking garage. The clouds poured

rain onto John’s black Dodge Dart. The door they had

exited swung open again. A handful of shady-looking

agents pursued after them. John vaulted over the slick

hood of the car and jumped into the driver's seat. Wilson

slammed the passenger door behind him. The car roared

to life. John switched it into drive and floored the pedal.

The back wheels spun in place forming a moody cloud of

smoke. The car jerked forward and peeled out of the

abandoned parking lot.

The pursuing agents stopped dead in their tracks.

They all looked at their boss for directions on what to do

next. The menacing leader wearing a full suit barked to all

the agents,

“What are you waiting for? Get back to work!”

The thugs scattered. He remained standing alone

in the rain staring at the black car speeding down the road.

A strike of lightning revealed a mischievous smile

spreading across the man’s face.

23

Chapter 6 Fight ❧

John and Wilson drifted around the corners of the

parking garage leaving a dark moody cloud of smoke. By

the time the corrupt agents got to their vehicles John and

Wilson were long gone. They had already sped and mixed

in with the hundreds of cars in the stop and go traffic.

John and Wilson sat in the traffic wondering what

they could do. The headlights of the cars passing

illuminated both figures.

“Where can we go?” John asked.

Wilson responded, “Your apartment is bugged.

Going there would only put us in more danger.”

“So what can we do?” John asked with concern.

A moment of silence passed. An idea popped into

John’s head.

“Wait! There’s an abandoned building I used to take

pictures at! We could go there!”

“Perfect, as long as it’s secure.”

“The lock on the front door was broken but other

than that I think it’s safe!”

“Perfect! We might actually make it out of this!”

After sitting in traffic for an hour they finally made it.

By now the morning was already dawning. The once dark

rainy sky found itself painted with colors. The soft orangey

light revealed a giant abandoned office building with a jet

24

black Dodge Dart parked in front. The one functioning

glass door was busted off its hinges and lying on the

ground with broken glass scattered all around. The graffiti

covered walls proved not many people hung around the

building hidden in the woods.

Just as John and Wilson began to walk inside the

building a alarm began to obnoxiously ring. John and

Wilson spun around as fast as their feet would allow. They

scanned the parking lot. The noise was coming from the

car. In the wheel well of the car a flashing red tracking

device had been activated. Wilson quickly un attached it

and smashed it with his foot. The sound stopped.

John anxiously looked at Wilson and said, “They’ve

found us!”

“Get in the car! They’ll be here any minute!” Wilson

yelled.

John stuck the keys into the ignition and twisted.

Nothing happened. He tried once again. Instead of the

loud engine roaring to life the car just sat there silent.

“What are the chances? It must be dead,” John

stated.

The sound of speeding cars interrupted their

thinking. They both jumped out of the car and sprinted into

the building. A suburban drifted to a halt and stopped in

front of the door. Four men armed with P90s rushed into

the poorly lit lobby of the once used building. They stood

and listened attentively. The men cleared the lobby.

Suddenly the soldiers heard movement from a room to the

25

left of them. The party slowly entered the dark room. The

light revealed Wilson lying limp on the floor. The attacking

team lowered their guns and ran to Wilson.

One radioed, “We need a medic!”

Just as the man said this Wilson’s eyes opened.

John ran out of a side room, into the light. He threw all his

weight into one soldiers upper body leaving the soldier

knocked unconscious and his gun falling to the ground

right in front of Wilson. The other three quickly spun

around and raised their guns to John’s head.

“Hands where we can see them,” one maliciously

roared.

John slowly raised his arms in the air. Three shots

rang out. All three soldiers stumbled to the ground in a row

revealing Wilson holding a smoking gun. Stunned John

walked over to Wilson and helped him to his feet.

“You killed them!” John said dazed.

Wilson responded, “If I hadn’t they would’ve taken

you back to the lab and killed you. I didn’t have a choice.”

John understood why Wilson made that decision

but he wished that there was another way; there

unfortunately wasn’t.

26

Chapter 7 Deal ❧

“There’ll be a lot more of them here soon. There’s

nothing we can do. There’s no point in running, I can

already hear their drones from outside. We can’t run,”

Wilson admitted in defeat. Wilson sat down against the

wall. John looked down. They both felt hopeless. John

walked to the wall and plopped down beside Wilson.

John asked, “We’re so close! You’re sure there’s

nothing we can do?”

Wilson tried to lighten the mood and change the

subject by, “So you’re into photography or so I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, that and making videos--- Wait! We could

make a video explaining what this organization has done

as leverage!”

They both jumped to their feet.

“Yes! So we film it! Then we send it to someone

trustworthy; and tell them to share it with everyone if they

don’t hear back from us! Who could we send it to?”

“Joey! He would do it!”

“Do you have your camera?”

“I never leave without it! It’s in my trunk.”

27

John sprinted out of the room, through the lobby,

and into the open. The drone instantly spotted him and

prepared to pursue the boy. He whipped open the trunk,

snatched his camera backpack, and ran back inside. The

confused drone pilot went back to patrolling the facility.

Wilson was waiting on John. He handed the

camera to Wilson; then Wilson handed John a list of

names. Wilson powered up the camera.

John began to talk, “Hello, I’m John. A government

organization is operating out of the old hospital on Side

Street in Columbia, SC has gone corrupt. So far they have

experimented on four people, I am one of those people. I

am the only one to survive the testing and escape.”

Disappointed in himself, Wilson looked to the floor.

“Don’t let them die without justice,” John finished.

“Spread the word.”

The video began to upload. The video slowly ticked

on up to a 100%. Before the video sent to Joey they

attached the words: “Send this video to everyone you

know and tell them to do the same if you don’t hear back

from me. Hopefully I can explain later.”

The sounds of a speeding car interrupted Wilson

and John’s thoughts. John motioned for Wilson to run.

Wilson grabbed the gun he had used earlier and

disappeared into the darkness. The front door busted

open. In rushed ten armed men. Merlin, their leader,

walked in behind them.

John glared at the leader.

28

“If you take one more step, your little secret is out.”

John yelled.

The soldiers and Merlin stopped dead in their

tracks. A chill ran down Merlin’s spine.

Merlin coolly chuckled, “Ha ha. Oh really? How

would you manage to do that?”

“That doesn’t matter. If you don’t leave this building

and refuse to continue to test on people like me, everyone

will know,” John bluntly stated.

Merlin glared, “Not in a million years.”

He motioned for the soldiers to walk forward and

grab John.

Everything went into slow motion for John. Merlin

waited as a medalist about to receive his prize. John

swung his fist and made contact with the first advisories’

face. Another soldier grabbed John. John’s legs kicked

through the air.

Wilson, who had snuck behind the soldiers,

grabbed Merlin and screamed, “Let him go or Merlin dies!”

The soldiers froze.

Stunned Merlin grumbled, “Listen to the man.”

John shoved the armed men out of his way and

walked towards Wilson. Wilson kept the gun pointed at

Merlin’s head and kept a firm grasp on his shirt.

“We aren’t messing around.” Wilson spat into

Merlin’s ear.

29

“Lets us go quietly. If you don’t order your soldiers

to stand down you wind up with a bullet in your head and

the world knowing about your tests.”

Merlin angrily agreed, “Fine! Unit A1 I order you to

leave this premise.”

The soldiers stood down and began to exit.

“Ok so here’s the deal,” John stated. “We’re all

gonna leave. We won’t tell anyone what you’re

organization has done as long as you stay away. If you

keep your side of the deal, we won’t publish a video all

over the internet. Do we have a deal?”

An eternity of silence passed.

“Deal!” Merlin yelled.

Wilson shoved him forward and lowered the gun.

Merlin stormed out of the room and returned to his small

army waiting outside. Once they were certain Merlin and

the soldiers had left they let out a giant sigh of relief.

“How did that work?” Wilson exclaimed.

“I have no clue! All I know is that I’m no longer in a

test room, thanks to you.” John responded.

They walked outside to the car, grabbed the jumper

from the trunk, recharged the battery, and drove off.

30

Chapter 8 Normal ❧

John dropped Wilson off at his stop. They both

exchanged emotional goodbyes. John headed to his large

abode to explain to his mother all that had gone down. He

knew Merlin definitely planned to return and kidnap John

once again. That was tomorrow's problem. John parked on

the roof of the parking garage. Instead of getting out of the

car John stayed frozen. He sat and just pondered all that

had just happened. His whole life he wanted more. After

thinking in the car for a eternity he came to the conclusion:

more meant more stress and responsibility. More isn’t

always good.

31

About the Author

The author, Zach Jordan, is a sixteen-year-

old guy. He began writing when he was younger

and wrote off and on throughout the past few

years. To date, this is his biggest writing project.